After eight weeks of praising the Big 12’s best, observing the hottest topics and bashing Colorado, the conference season has drawn to a close. Here is a special end-of-season Big 12 Fastbreak, highlighting the conference’s best.

Raise Your Glasses To…

Kansas (27-4, 14-2)

The Jayhawks proved they were the best team in the Big 12 the last month of the season. They rebounded from a tough loss to Texas A&M with eight straight victories, including Saturday’s come from behind victory against Texas. In that game, Kansas was down by as many as 16 points toward the end of the first half before taking the lead early in the second. The Jayhawks did this against the best player in the nation, the best point guard in the conference not named Acie Law IV and the best three-point shooting team. Not a bad accomplishment. Kansas is guaranteed a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament if it makes it to the championship game in Oklahoma City this weekend.

Send a Congratulations Facebook Message To…

Kevin Durant, Texas

The best college player since Magic Johnson- period. No one in the Big 12 has ever come close to doing what Durant did this season. He averaged 28.9 points and 12.5 rebounds per game to lead the league in both categories. And people seem to forget that he is just a freshman. Imagine what he could be doing next year (even thought it’s not going to happen). At 6-foot-9 Durant can drive, shoot the three, post up on smaller defenders and defend smaller players. He played at the top of Texas’ 3-2 zone last Saturday. It’s unfortunate that Durant is stealing the postseason awards from Texas A&M’s Acie Law IV. Law had one of the best seasons in Big 12 history, but Durant is a special player who deserves every award.

First-Team All Fastbreak

Kevin Durant, Texas

Acie Law IV, Texas A&M

Aleks Maric, Nebraska

Cartier Martin, Kansas State

Julian Wright, Kansas

Start a Conversation With These Topics...

He wouldn’t be good at politics

Texas Tech coach Bob Knight became the all-time college basketball wins leader this season, but his performances at the Big 12 Coaches Teleconference each week were more memorable. He hung up on reporters three weeks in a row and rarely gave anything more than three word responses. Here is some of his great insight from this week.

On a possible advantage for Oklahoma schools at the Big 12 Tournament in Oklahoma City

“A city’s a city; an arena’s an arena.”

On RPI and the chance of K-State and his team not making the NCAA Tournament

“I don’t know, who knows. I’m not smart enough to figure that out.”

Big 12 Rank

Listen to any coach and he’ll tell you the league is the best it has ever been and is one of the best in the country. RPI rankings don’t agree. That’s why K-State and Texas Tech are still on the fence when it comes to the NCAA Tournament. In reality, the Big 12 is down this year. Texas, Kansas and Texas A&M are all capable of winning the national title, but the level of competition fades greatly after that. Other conferences aren’t much better though. The SEC has Florida and a bunch of other teams that are on par with the K-State and Texas Tech. The Big East doesn’t have a legitimate national title contender. The Pac-10 is the nation’s deepest conference, but only UCLA will get a top three seed. And the ACC is the most overrated. Virginia tied for the conference title and it only beat Puerto Rico-Mayaguez by seven this season.

Keep a close watch on the race for irrelevance...

Believe it or not, Colorado actually won another game last weekend and finished 3-13 in Big 12 play. The Big 12 Fastbreak would like to say goodbye to Buffaloes coach Ricardo Patton. That victory was his last home game. Patton has been at Colorado for 11 years and though he’s not John Wooden, he is a better coach than anyone the Buffaloes athletics department will be able to find for that job.

You probably said ‘Oh My God’ about...

A lot of things this conference season. Here is a reminder of some of the best. Oklahoma State edges Texas in three overtimes. Nebraska’s Aleks Maric scores 41 points against Kansas State. Kevin Durant shoots 5-for-5 from the three-point land on his way to 25 first half points against Kansas.

Kansan sportswriter Mark Dent can be contacted at mdent@kansan.com.

— Edited by Mark Vierthaler